Giovanni Gabrielli, lord of Gubbio, was expelled by Cardinal Albornoz (1354) and the town handed over to a pontifical vicar.

[5] A grant to the Church of Gubbio by the Emperor Frederick, dated 8 November 1163, indicates that the Ghibellines were in full control of the city and that Bonactus was bishop-elect.

[8] From time immemorial, the bishops of Gubbio had been directly subordinate (suffragans) of the Holy See (Papacy), with no supervisory archbishop intervening, and were therefore required to attend Roman synods.

In his bull Super universas of 4 June 1563, Pope Pius IV reorganized the administration of the territories of the March of Ancona by creating a new archbishopric by elevating the bishop and Archdiocese of Urbino.

He created the new ecclesiastical province of Urbino, which was to include the dioceses of Cagli, Pesaro, Fossombrone, Montefeltro, Senigallia.

[9] But, as a result of the resistance begun by Bishop Mariano Savelli, it was not until the eighteenth century that Urbino could exercise effective metropolitan jurisdiction.

Without suitable collateral relatives, he determined to leave his dukedoms to the Papacy, and, on 30 April 1624, the appropriate documents were registered in Rome.

Taddeo Barberini, the nephew of Pope Urban VIII, took formal possession and appointed a governor, though Duke Francesco Maria continued to rule during his lifetime.